


Welcome Home, Jailbird

by Merlucafan



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/M, Merluca - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-24 21:42:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21345154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merlucafan/pseuds/Merlucafan
Summary: Merluca oneshot / What I wish we saw in 16x06
Relationships: Meredith Grey/Andrew DeLuca
Comments: 2
Kudos: 74





	Welcome Home, Jailbird

**Author's Note:**

> So this was super rushed, I just had the idea and wanted to get it out! 
> 
> Enjoy

“Trick or Treat!” 

Meredith snuck into her house and yelled through the hallway. Fresh from her cell, she was still dressed in her prison clothes - the only thing concerning her was getting home to her family, she didn’t have time to contemplate changing. Plus, it was Halloween - she could get away with it. She could have called Andrew or one of her sisters to come and pick her up, but she wanted to surprise them just as much as the kids so she took a cab. 

Barely a second later she could hear her kids excitedly calling her name and their stampede of feet running through the dining room to meet her. At once all three of her babies crashed into her. Meredith wrapped her arms around them, squeezing as hard as she could. She never wanted to be apart from them again, she thought to herself as she tried to control her emotions at seeing her babies again. 

It wasn’t only the kids who were surprised to see her. Maggie, Amelia and Andrew followed closely behind the kids, their shocked faces quickly turning to grins and beams once they saw the scene before them of Meredith and the children being reunited. 

“Cool costume, Mom!” Zola exclaimed as they broke away, eyeing Meredith’s red tracksuit. 

“Thanks, sweetheart, I told you I’d make it back for Halloween!” Meredith placed a kiss on her eldest daughter’s head. 

“Ok kids, let’s give your Mom a minute. We still have more candy to sort!” Andrew ushered the kids back into the dining room and they ran to take their position back with their candy. 

Meredith couldn’t help but feel a little choked at how Andrew interacted with the kids. Their relationship seemed to have developed even more since she’d been away. 

Meredith was still gazing at Andrew when a cough pulled her out of her daydream. 

“Oh, hey guys, sorry. Come here!l” Meredith acknowledged her sisters still standing next to her when Amelia cleared her throat making her presence known. The three sisters shared a group hug. 

“How are you?” Maggie asked in a muffled voice, still enveloped in the hug. 

“I’m fine, good. Happy to be home. But really I’m good, I had a great cellmate keeping me company” Meredith sounded contemplative as she said this, but the sisters realised now was not the time to ask about that. They noticed Andrew still lingering. 

“We’ll give you some time to catch up” Maggie said with a smile, noticing Meredith’s gaze had been flicking back to Andrew the whole time she was talking to them. Meredith acknowledged her with a smile and nod as they turned and headed back to join the children at the table. 

Andrew couldn’t get Meredith in his arms quick enough. He was next to her and wrapping his arms around her in record time. She clung to him, her head on his chest. She breathed him in and thought about how much she had missed him. She felt the same as she felt about her kids - she didn’t want to be apart from him like that again. 

“Welcome home, jailbird” Andrew muttered into her hair, placing a kiss on top of her head. Meredith felt him draw in a large breath, and heard the emotion in her voice. She let out a chuckle at the phrase, but didn’t break apart from him.

“I missed you” she simply said into his chest. 

“I missed you too, Mer” Andrew replied. He then added “Want some candy?” with a smile, trying to lighten the mood. 

Meredith was desperate to talk with him about the argument they had two days previously. She’d been stewing on it whilst she was in jail and she knew she needed to apologise, but for know it could wait. She was home with Andrew and the kids and she could finally relax. The couple walked hand-in-hand into the living room and sat together at the dining table, helping the kids sort their candy. Ellis clambered up onto Andrew’s lap, but he always kept one hand in Meredith’s as if they couldn’t bare to let each other go yet. 

Meredith watched the scene unfold in front of her, and happily sat back quietly to observe. Each child had emptied their Halloween buckets onto the table to see what treats they’d earned trick-or-treating and were excitedly rummaging through the piles of sweets. 

“Mom, Andrew took us trick or treating and we went to so many houses, look at all these sweets we got!” Bailey said excitedly. 

“I can see, that’s great Bails! Did you guys have fun?” 

“Yeah Mom it was so fun. Andrew told us all these spooky Halloween stories but I wasn’t even scared” 

“Oh did he now?” Meredith raised an eyebrow in Andrew’s direction, but laughed at the same time so he would know she wasn’t really annoyed. 

“Hey, Bailey! That was meant to be our secret!” Andrew feigned offence which made the little boy laugh. 

“Right, come on kids. It’s late, time for bed. Let’s get those teeth brushed before your teeth fall out from all the sugar!” Meredith stood up from the table as her kids ran up the stairs to get ready for bed. 

She leaned over to Andrew, putting her hand on his shoulder and gave him a quick kiss. “I’ll be down in a minute” she said as her hand trailed off of his shoulder and she headed off upstairs to tuck the children in. 

Andrew busied himself and tidied the rest of the kids’ candy into each of their bowls. He moved into the kitchen to tidy in there (the house had become a bit of a mess with himself, Amelia and Maggie all coming and going to take care of the kids and he didn't want Meredith to have to deal with that). He was stacking the last of the plates back into the cupboard when he felt two arms snake around his waist. 

“You really don’t have to do that. You’ve done more than enough already” Meredith said to him. 

Andrew turned around to face her, and reached behind him to hand her the cup of tea he’d made her. Meredith simply raised an eyebrow at him. Andrew shook his head and laughed, reached his other hand behind his back and handed her a glass of red wine. Meredith laughed as she took the wine and took a large gulp. 

“God, that tastes good”. She turned and headed to the couch and slumped down. Andrew sat next to her, and she instinctively cosied up next to him, placing her head on his shoulder. She was so glad to be back home with Andrew, but despite not wanting to ruin the moment she knew they needed to discuss their argument before Zola went into hospital. 

“Andrew, about what I said when we were at the hospital.. About you not knowing me.. We haven’t really had a chance to talk about it since Zola was in the hospital and then I went to jail...” Meredith began in small, shy voice. She already felt ashamed of what she said. 

It was weird, she’s never been one to concede. To give in and apologise. She’s always been quite stubborn, and even when she knew she was in the wrong she’d apologise in a roundabout way that wasn’t ever quite an apology. But with Andrew it was different; just another thing he’d managed to change about her for the better. She didn’t want to be stubborn with him, because he was never that way with her. They resolved arguments, talked through their issues and treated each other equally. 

“Meredith, I know why you said those things. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt a little, but you were stressed. The article, and Bailey, it was a lot for you. I get that. I just wish you knew I was only trying to protect you. Maybe I shouldn’t have, I know you don’t need anyone to do that for you..”

Meredith sat up to look at him now, cutting him off mid- sentence. “You’re right, I don’t need anyone to protect me. But I like that you do. I haven’t had anyone close to look after me in a long time, and it’s taking some getting used to again. I don’t want you to think I’m pushing you away Andrew, or that I don’t love you. Because I do. So I’m sorry for what I said. You do know me, maybe even more than I know myself, even down to the red wine you already knew I'd want instead of tea - and I love that you do”. 

Andrew leant in and rested his forehead against hers. 

“I love you too, Mer” he replied with a sigh. 

“I also wanted to thank you. For how you were with Zola at the hospital, and for taking care of them whilst I wasn’t here. Seeing you with Zola, bringing her Jell-O, and seeing you tonight with the kids after Trick-or-Treating… you really are amazing” She placed a soft kiss on his lips before resuming her earlier position of snuggling into him with her head safely tucked into the crook of his neck. 

“When I was in jail, you know, I had a lot of time to think. I hated being apart from you and the kids. And then coming home tonight and seeing them so happy after trick-or-treating with you, it made me think. What if you were here a lot more, like.. Permanently?” Meredith looked up at Andrew who was staring down, avoiding eye contact with her. 

“Is everything ok?” Meredith prompted after a few moments of silence.

“Mer, I… I want nothing more than to live with you guys and spend more time with you. I love you - and the kids - so much. I just don’t want to push things. This morning, there as a moment with Zola…” 

Andrew proceeded to explain how Zola had reacted when he tried to help her with her wings, and how she felt about forgetting her Dad. 

“... And so I found her in the OR gallery and I told her the story of Isaac’s tumour, and how Derek had saved him. I’m sorry if I overstepped, but she was so upset and I just wanted to help. She really cheered up after that and was asking all these questions about the surgery. She was perfectly fine trick-or-treating, but I just worry about intruding on their lives too much. Pushing them too quickly before they've gotten used to their Mom having a boyfriend" 

“Oh, Zola” Meredith sighed. “She knows she can ask about Derek whenever she wants, but she doesn’t tend to. I didn’t know she felt like this. But honestly, Andrew. The way she was with you this evening, I never even knew something was up”. 

“Really?” Andrew replied, sounding hopeful. 

“Really. The kids love you, Andrew and you’re so great with them. Bailey couldn't talk about you more if he tried, and Ellis is like your shadow now. How about this - tomorrow I’ll sit them down and talk with them about the idea of you moving in with us and we can take it from there” 

“That sounds great” Andrew bent down to place a kiss on her cheek. He then lingered by her ear. His voice dropped to it’s dark, seductive tone that gave her shivers and he whispered “But for now, can we go to bed? Because my bad-ass, saving-the-world girlfriend looks kind of hot in prison clothes” 

Meredith let out a deep laugh and wrapped her arms around Andrew’s neck. He carried her to bed where they had their own reunion before falling asleep in each other’s arms, both hoping this would become their everyday routine soon.


End file.
